Coralife T5's or Metal Halide or LED's

[Dylan M.]

I have two 150 watt metal halide lights for my 36 inch tank. I was just curios if these lights are good for my 65 gallon tank. I was thinking maybe selling them and getting LED's, but just don't know yet. I'd like some input please!

[Liberty]

I replaced my 3MH with 4 Radions, plus side cooler tank don't have to replace every 9 months I set it on 14K plus 5% more red. Corals seem to to be growing still and I'm trying SPS this time.

[Dylan M.]

Originally Posted by Liberty

I replaced my 3MH with 4 Radions, plus side cooler tank don't have to replace every 9 months I set it on 14K plus 5% more red. Corals seem to to be growing still and I'm trying SPS this time.

question what is 3MH? and SPS?

[mr_X]

mh= metal halides
sps= small polyp scleractinian (branchy, stony corals)

What corals do you intend to keep? If you want sps, I would ditch the 150's. You can replace them with 250 watt halides, a T5 fixture, or LEDs. Up to you.

[Dylan M.]

Originally Posted by mr_X

mh= metal halides
sps= small polyp scleractinian (branchy, stony corals)

What corals do you intend to keep? If you want sps, I would ditch the 150's. You can replace them with 250 watt halides, a T5 fixture, or LEDs. Up to you.

Oh okay well I'm not sure just yet I wanna do a various amount of corals. I was gonna do that light and possibly add a T5 light with it. I'm pretty sure the MH's I have right now are anywhere from 12k-20k idk how to tell it doesn't say on the bulb.

[mr_X]

At the end of the day, you still have 150 watt halides. These will only put out so much, and you will be somewhat limited. Adding a T5 fixture would work, but then you may lose the shimmer so many people love about halides. Again, personal preference.

[IslandHopper]

LED ... It is the future, prices are declining.
The Radions are REALLY nice, but expensive... I'd like to get those eventually, but am running something similar to the TaoTronics you can get on eBay. Much more affordable, but still plenty powerful to light 20" deep water (approx).
I haven't got any corals under them, but a Carpet Anemone is doing VERY well... Has made itself a home between a couple rocks at about 16" of depth under those LED's.

An advantage to LED's is that they don't loose intensity as they age... as long as they light up, they put out the same amount of light as when new... They are also pretty robust, but eventually, individual LEDs will fail, and depending on how your fixture is put together, you may or may not be able to easily replace individual LEDs.
That is part of why the Radion units are worth their price... Groups of LEDs are easily replaceable... either for failures, or for newer technology, or to change color output.

[Dylan M.]

well I guess for right now I'll stick with my MH's and eventually get LED's. let's say I run them for a couple of months then get LED's how much would that affect my coral?